[Cincinatus' Wife]

There will always be useful idiots.

Al Neuharth: Why is China OK, but Cuba 'enemy'?

Fidel Castro - Cuba

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Earlier Post

[alloysteel]

The sanctions imposed on Cuba were kept in place largely as a memorial to JFK. Believed widely, but never conclusively proved, Castro had a more than casual connection with the Kennedy assassination. Therefore, to properly honor the passing of JFK, Castro HAS to be shunned and shut out by the US. Not that there are a lack of already perfectly good reasons to never do business with Castro (who exports mostly revolution and stiffs anyone who is so naive as to think that goods offloaded at Havana should be paid for), but the continuation of the Cuban embargo by the US is almostly exclusively emotional at its base. Goods can easily be transported to Cuba, through Canada, or Mexico, or Venezuela. The rest of the world can get in that way, if they so want to.

[Jubal Harshaw]

Missing from the article is the fact that the "embargo," by itself, imposes only a minor trade cost on US items exported to Cuba. There is apparently a small industry of middlemen in Latin America who make a living by buying US goods, pretending to ship them to Latin America, then diverting them to Cuba. Just to be upfront about this: I have no documentary proof, but I have met a number of people in Chile who claimed to make a living by doing this for airplane parts and industrial parts.